Following the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, McLaren speedsters Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crossed the checkered flag with an impressive run, signaling a good start to the season. This good start followed them into all the pre-race sessions of the Saudi Arabian GP as well.
However, in the racing event of the Saudi Arabian GP, Lando Norris almost gave the McLaren camp a heart attack with his sudden actions right on the starting grid.
How did Lando Norris avoid jump start penalty?
As the five red lights of the Saudi Arabian GP were about to go off, Lando Norris briefly ran his MCL38 forward as he prematurely released the clutch. But he managed to seize the forward push right before the start signal went off.
This ‘jump start’ movement was immediately reported to the FIA stewards on the team radio by Mercedes’ George Russell, who was placed beside Norris, and was expected to result in a penalty for the McLaren racer.
However, much to Russell’s sorrow, the FIA stewards opted out of penalizing the ‘jump-starting’ Norris, as his ‘limited’ forward motion wasn’t detected by the FIA transponder.
Explaining the ‘no-penalty’ decision, the FIA stewards put forth a statement that read: “The stewards reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video and determined that the video appeared to show that car 4 moved before the start signal was given.”
“However, the FIA approved and supplied transponder fitted on the car did not indicate a jump start.”
“Article 48.1 a) of the Formula One Sporting Regulations states clearly that the judgment of whether or not there was a jump start is to be made in accordance with the transponder, which did not show a jump start. In the circumstances, we took no further action.”
Although Norris made a ‘jump start’ mistake, he put forth a satisfying performance with his McLaren MCL38 at the Jeddah race circuit.
Norris assesses Saudi Arabian GP performance
The British-Belgian Lando Norris started the race from the P6 spot on the starting grid at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and put forth a good fight to Max Verstappen in the initial few laps, where he held P1 for some time. But, as the race wore on, it all went downhill for the McLaren speedster, as he crossed the checkered flag at P8 in 1:21:28.981 hours.
In the post-race interview, Lando Norris reflected on his performance at the Saudi Arabian GP when questioned about how his race panned out. To this, he replied, “We took a little bit of a gamble to try to go along with the mediums and hope there was a safety car or something, but it never came so we gave it a good shot.”
“We could have just boxed in the beginning with everyone else, but I thought we’d try something a little bit different and could have worked. It didn’t but that’s how it is sometimes,” he told, emphasizing McLaren’s failed race strategy.
“I’m happy. I think the performance of the car was good in the end.”
“Yes, I think we missed out on a couple points from my side, but we did what we could with the strategy that we chose to do so.”
“I’m happy with that and the weekend as a whole,” Norris concluded by expressing his satisfaction.
In the end, luckily, Norris ran away with just 4 points from the Saudi Arabian GP, adding to McLaren’s 12 total points in Round 2. The McLaren youngster currently sits in the 8th spot in the Driver’s Standings with a total of 12 points.
Lando Norris will now travel to Melbourne and race with his McLaren MCL38 on March 24 at the Australian Grand Prix. Will he pull off another ‘jump start’ at the Australian GP? Will he lose his P1 spot at the Melbourne circuit as well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
